Apparently, THIS is Growth

Sep 7

Written By Danielle Gaebel

Last week I was looking at my September calendar and having a minor...

Oh shit, Danielle. What did you do? 😂

Over the span of 10 days, I'll be facilitating 13 different experiences.

At a wellness festival in Connecticut.

At the New York State Trauma Conference.

Online with our Superfine Synergy community.

And at a women's retreat in Pennsylvania.

For context, I live a VERY simple life.

I leave my house about once a week to go to the farmers' market. I don't even go to the grocery store. Most of what I facilitate happens from the comfort of my own home.

So this is a whole lot of being OUT for Danielle.

And while I'm not particularly nervous about facilitating, several of these are things I've never created or facilitated before.

I'm always feeling into the energy of an experience and asking what belongs there — then creating from that place.

Which is beautiful.

And also occasionally comes with a little voice saying...

Please don't f*ck this up.

But as I was looking at everything on my calendar, I actually wasn't thinking about any of that.

I was thinking:

When am I going to work on growing Superfine Synergy this month?

There are projects I want to move forward. A summit I want to work on. More facilitators I want to bring in. Bigger things I'm building behind the scenes.

And then it hit me.

This IS growth.

And suddenly I wondered how often we do this to ourselves.

We decide what growth is supposed to look like.

And then we're so busy looking for that version that we miss the growth that's already happening.

I was looking for mine behind my computer.

Meanwhile, I had somehow overlooked the fact that I'm taking Superfine Synergy into new rooms, new communities, and putting this work in front of women who may never have experienced it before.

Ummm...

THIS IS THE GROWTH 🙌🤦‍♀️😂

And maybe there's something here for you, too.

Because I think we do this with our healing and personal growth all the time.

We look for the big breakthrough.

The moment when we're finally more confident. Less triggered. Completely sure of ourselves. Or somehow magically finished with the thing we've been working through.

But sometimes growth looks much less impressive from the inside.

Maybe you said no to something you would have automatically said yes to six months ago.

Maybe you noticed yourself starting to spiral and actually paused.

Maybe you felt what was happening in your body instead of immediately overriding it.

Maybe you asked for what you needed.

Maybe you rested without feeling like you had to earn it.

Maybe the same hard thing happened...

but you met it a little differently this time.

That counts.

The noticing counts.

The choosing differently counts.

The tiny shift counts.

The remembering counts.

We don't need every experience to end in some giant cathartic breakthrough for something meaningful to have happened.

Sometimes something simply reconnects us to a part of ourselves we'd forgotten.

Sometimes we remember something we already knew.

Sometimes we awaken something that has been quiet for a very long time.

Those moments matter, too.

And sometimes we need to stop looking for who we think we're supposed to be becoming long enough to notice who we've already become.

That's what my ridiculous September calendar reminded me.

And it's also part of why I'm willing to do this absurd amount of peopling 🤪

Part of the vision for Superfine Synergy has always been to get this work in front of more women.

To introduce women to different practices, tools, and pathways that can support their healing, self-discovery, and growth.

Because healing isn't one-size-fits-all.

My own healing certainly hasn't been.

It's been a collection of things — different practices opening different doors at different times.

And sometimes you don't know what might open a door for you until you're given the opportunity to experience it.

So this September, I get to take the work into a few new rooms...

SEPTEMBER 18–20 | TRANSCEND FEST | CONNECTICUT

I'm heading back to Transcend Fest, where I'll facilitate a JourneyDance® experience centered around community, expression, awakening, and JOY.

I’ll also be offering Crossing the Threshold: An Autumn Equinox Ceremony — weaving meditation, reflection, journaling, symbolic release, and a letter participants will write to their future selves, which will find its way back to them around the Winter Solstice.

SEPTEMBER 22–23 | NYS TRAUMA-INFORMED NETWORK & RESOURCE CENTER CONFERENCE

This one stretches me — in a really good way.

I'll be presenting You Can't Think Your Way Out of Overwhelm: A Movement-Based Approach to Nervous System Regulation.

I'll be in a room with social workers, frontline professionals, and people doing trauma-informed work across New York State, exploring something I deeply believe:

Sometimes we can't think our way out of what we're experiencing.

We need another doorway.

The body. The breath. Movement.

There's something both exciting and a little nerve-racking about bringing my perspective into a room filled with people doing this work from so many different professional lenses.

But I know this work.

I trust what I've learned, what I've experienced, and what I've seen happen when we stop treating the body like it's separate from the conversation.

And taking complicated ideas about the nervous system and making them human, understandable, and actually usable?

That's part of what I do.

So yes, this one stretches me.

And I'm really excited to step into that room 🔥

SEPTEMBER 24 | FULL MOON CEREMONY + JOURNEYDANCE | ONLINE

I'll come home and gather with our own Superfine Synergy community for our Full Moon in Aries Ceremony & JourneyDance.

The Full Moon isn't actually until Saturday, but with me heading straight to Pennsylvania for RISE, I didn't want our online community to miss the opportunity to work with this Full Moon energy.

So Thursday it is 🌕

SEPTEMBER 25–27 | RISE GATHERINGS WEEKEND GETAWAY | PENNSYLVANIA

Then I'm heading to Rise Gatherings, where I'll be facilitating:

Yoga Nidra for Rest & Receiving

A Harvest Full Moon Ceremony: Release, Reflect & Give Thanks

Reconnect to Joy: A JourneyDance Experience

Carry It With You: A Yoga Nidra for Integration

I'll also be offering private Lunar Wisdom: Your Personal Moon Map and Come Back to Yourself: Private Somatic Sessions throughout the weekend.

And then, presumably, I'll come home and not leave my house until further notice And by “further notice,” 😂 I mean the following Sunday, when I'm back out into the world for JourneyDance at Bethel Woods.

(Thursday JourneyDance and Saturday Brave Women are online. Homebody rules say those don't count lol.)

But here's what I'm going to try to remember while I'm preparing, creating, packing, driving, peopling, facilitating, and occasionally questioning my life choices:

Don't only look at what's next, Danielle.

Notice what's already happening.

Notice what's changing.

Notice where I've grown.

Notice where I'm meeting life differently than I used to.

Because clearly, I needed the reminder.

And maybe you do, too.

Where have you been so focused on what's next — or on who you think you should be becoming — that you've missed the growth that's already happening?

Maybe growth doesn't always announce itself with some huge breakthrough.

Sometimes you have to stop long enough to recognize...

Oh.

I'm already in it.